Fortnite playtime on consoles last month topped Call of Duty, EA Sports FC, GTA 5 and Roblox combined

videogameschronicle.com:

Console users reportedly spent over 1.6 billion hours playing Fortnite in December 2023.

The total is greater than the combined amount of time console owners spent playing Call of Duty HQ (Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone), EA Sports FC 24, Grand Theft Auto V/Online and Roblox last month, according to research firm Ampere Analysis.

Epic’s battle royale game saw a massive jump in user engagement in November driven by the launch of Chapter 4 Season OG, which took players on a trip down memory lane by reverting the island to its Season 1 form.

Hours spent in Fortnite in November were up 146% compared to October, and rose by a further 9% in December, when Epic launched a trio of new game modes as permanent additions to the free-to-play title.

The three additional live service experiences added to Fortnite last month were Lego Fortnite, Fortnite: Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival.

Built in partnership with The Lego Group, Lego Fortnite is a survival and crafting experience, not unlike Minecraft.

Developed by Rocket League studio Psyonix, Rocket Racing is billed as “a supersonic arcade racer where players drift, fly, and boost with friends through an ever-growing selection of tracks”.

And Fortnite Festival, from Rock Band studio Harmonix, is a music game where players can perform in a band with friends or play solo with tracks from popular artists.

“As the novelty of Lego Fortnite wears off, Ampere expects engagement to normalise in the coming months”, said Louise Wooldridge, the firm’s research manager for games.

“Although the confirmed 2024 return of Fortnite OG – the November 2023 content update which triggered the game’s highest all-time player count – could see its absolute dominance persist.”